John Bodkin Adams

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For other persons named John Adams, see John Adams (disambiguation).
Dr John Bodkin Adams

John Bodkin Adams in the 1940s
Born January 21, 1899(1899-01-21)
Randalstown, County Antrim, Ireland
Died July 4, 1983(1983-07-04)
Eastbourne, England

John Bodkin Adams (January 21, 1899 – July 4, 1983) was an Irish-born British general practitioner, convicted fraudster and suspected serial killer.[1] More than 160 of his patients died under suspicious circumstances.[1] He was tried and acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957, causing questions to be asked in Parliament. Another count of murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what was later described as "an abuse of process" by the presiding judge.[2] The trial featured in headlines around the world[3] and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time".[4]

Adams was subsequently found guilty of 13 offences of prescription fraud, lying on cremation forms, obstructing a police search and failing to keep a dangerous drugs register. He was removed from the Medical Register in 1957 and reinstated in 1961. He was banned from prescribing dangerous drugs for life.

Scotland Yard's files on the case were initially closed to the public until 2033, but special permission was granted in 2003 to open them.[1]

Contents

[edit] Early years

Adams was born into a highly religious family of Plymouth Brethren, an austere Protestant sect, remaining a member his entire life.[1] His father, Samuel, was a preacher in the local congregation, though by profession he was a watchmaker. He also had a passionate interest in cars, which he would pass on to John. Samuel was 39 years old when he married Ellen Bodkin, 30, in Randalstown, Ireland, in 1896. John was their first son, followed by a brother, William Samuel, in 1903. In 1914, Adams' father died of a stroke. Four years later, William died in the 1918 influenza pandemic.

Adams matriculated at Queen's University Belfast, at the age of 17. There he was seen as a "plodder" and "lone wolf" by his lecturers[1] and, due partly to an illness (probably tuberculosis), which caused him to miss a year of studies, he graduated in 1921 having failed to qualify for honours.

In 1921, surgeon Arthur Rendle Short offered him a position as assistant houseman at Bristol Royal Infirmary. Adams spent a year there but did not prove a success. On Short's advice, Adams applied for a job as a general practitioner in a Christian practice in Eastbourne.

[edit] Eastbourne

Adams arrived in Eastbourne in 1922, where he lived with his mother and cousin, Florence Henry. In 1929 he borrowed £2,000 from a patient, William Mawhood, and bought Kent Lodge, an 18-room house[5] in Trinity Trees (then known as Seaside Road[6]), a select address. Adams would frequently invite himself to the Mawhoods' residence at meal time, even bringing his mother and cousin. He also began charging items to their accounts at local stores, without their permission. Mrs Mawhood would later describe Adams to the police as "a real scrounger". When Mr Mawhood finally died in 1949, Adams visited his widow uninvited and took a 22-carat gold pen from her bedroom dressing table, saying he wanted something of her husband's. He never visited her again.[1]

Gossip regarding Adams' unconventional methods had started by the mid 1930s. In 1935 he received the first of many "anonymous postcards", as he admitted in a newspaper interview in 1957. In 1935, Adams inherited £7,385 from a patient, Mrs Matilda Whitton (whose whole estate amounted to £11,465). The will was contested by her relatives but upheld in court.

Adams stayed in Eastbourne throughout the war, though he was not deemed desirable by other doctors to be selected for a "pool system" where GPs would treat the patients of colleagues who had been called up.[1] In 1941 he gained a diploma in anaesthetics and worked in a local hospital one day a week, where he acquired a reputation as a bungler. He would fall asleep during operations, eat cakes, count money and even mix up the anaesthetic gas tubes leading to patients waking up or turning blue.[7] In 1943, his mother died.

Adams' career was very successful and he attended some of the most famous and influential people in the region, including MP and Olympic medal winner Lord Burghley, society painter Oswald Birley, the 10th Duke of Devonshire and a host of businesspeople.[1] But after years of rumours and Adams having been mentioned in at least 132 wills of his patients, on July 23, 1956 Eastbourne police received an anonymous call about a death. It was from Leslie Henson, the music hall performer, whose friend Gertrude Hullett had died unexpectedly while being treated by Adams.[1]

[edit] The police investigation

The investigation was taken over from Eastbourne police on August 17 by 2 officers from the Metropolitan Police's Murder Squad. The senior officer, Detective Superintendent Herbert Hannam of Scotland Yard was known for having solved the infamous Teddington Towpath Murders in 1953. He was assisted by a junior officer, Detective Sergeant Charles Hewett. The investigation decided to focus on cases from 1946-1956 only. Of the 310 death certificates examined by Home Office pathologist Francis Camps, 163 were deemed to be suspicious. Many were given "special injections" of substances Adams refused to describe to the nurses caring for his patients. Furthermore, it emerged that his habit was to ask the nurses to leave the room before injections were given.[1]

[edit] Obstruction

On August 24, the British Medical Association (BMA) sent a letter to all doctors in Eastbourne reminding them of patient confidentiality if interviewed by the police. Hannam was not impressed and the Attorney-General, Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller (who prosecuted all cases of poisoning), wrote to the BMA secretary, Dr. Macrae, "to try to get him to remove the ban". The impasse continued for months until on 8 November Manningham-Buller met with Dr. Macrae and, amazingly, passed him Hannam's 187 page report on Adams to convince him of the importance of the case. Dr Macrae took the report to the President of the BMA and returned it the next day. In all likelihood, he also copied it and passed it on to the defence.[1] Dr. Macrae then contacted doctors in Eastbourne himself and told the DPP that "they had no information which would justify" the charges against Adams. Only two Eastbourne doctors ever gave evidence to the police.

[edit] The meeting

Hannam bumped into Adams on October 1, 1956 and Adams asked "You are finding all these rumours untrue, aren't you?" Hannam mentioned a prescription Adams had forged: "That was very wrong... I have had God's forgiveness for it", Adams replied. Hannam brought up the deaths of Adams' patients and his receipt of legacies from them. Adams answered: "A lot of those were instead of fees, I don't want money. What use is it?"

[edit] Search

On November 24, Hannam, Hewett and the head of Eastbourne CID, Detective Inspector Pugh, searched Adams' house with a warrant issued under the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1951. Adams was surprised: "You will find none here" he said. Hannam then asked for Adams' Dangerous Drugs Register - the record of those ordered and used. Adams responded: "I don't know what you mean. I don't keep a record." He hadn't kept one in fact since 1949.

During the search, Adams opened a cupboard and slipped something into his pocket. Hannam and Pugh challenged him and Adams showed them two bottles of morphine; one he said was for Mrs Annie Sharpe, a patient and major witness who had died nine days earlier under his care; the other was for a Mr Soden, who died on September 17, 1956 (though pharmacy records later showed Soden had never been prescribed morphine). Adams was later (after his main trial in 1957) convicted of obstructing the search, concealing the bottles and for failing to keep a DD register. Later in the search Adams also told Hannam:

"Easing the passing of a dying person isn't all that wicked. She [Morrell] wanted to die. That can't be murder. It is impossible to accuse a doctor."

[edit] Sexuality

In December the police acquired a memorandum belonging to a Daily Mail journalist, concerning rumours of homosexuality between "a police officer, a magistrate, and a doctor". The latter directly implied Adams. This information had come, according to the reporter, directly from Hannam. The 'magistrate' was Sir Roland Gwynne, Mayor of Eastbourne from 1929 to 1931 and brother of Rupert Gwynne, MP for Eastbourne from 1910 to 1924. Gwynne was Adams' patient and known to visit every morning at 9 a.m. They went on frequent holidays together and had just spent three weeks in Scotland that September.[1] The 'police officer' was the Chief Constable of Eastbourne, Richard Walker.[1] Due to this connection, Hannam spent little time pursuing this line of inquiry (despite homosexuality being an offence in 1956). The memo is, however, testament to Adams' close connections to those of power in Eastbourne at the time.[1]

[edit] The arrest

Adams was arrested on December 19, 1956, by which time, he had become the richest doctor in England (paying £1,100 surtax in 1955 alone).[1] When told of the charges he said:

Murder... murder... Can you prove it was murder? [...] I didn't think you could prove it was murder. She was dying in any event.

Then while he was being taken away from Kent Lodge, he gripped his receptionist's hand and told her: "I will see you in heaven."

Hannam collected enough evidence in at least four of the cases for prosecution to be warranted: regarding Clara Neil Miller, Julia Bradnum, Edith Alice Morrell, and Gertrude Hullett. Of these, Adams was charged on one count: the murder of Morrell but with the murder of Hullett (and also her husband) being used to prove 'system'.

[edit] Committal hearing

The committal hearing took place in Lewes on January 14, 1957. The Chairman of the magistrates was Sir Roland Gwynne, but he stepped down due to his close friendship with Adams. The hearing concluded on January 24 and after a five-minute deliberation, Adams was committed for trial. A vital piece of evidence, a cheque written out for ₤1000, went missing after the hearing instigating a further police investigation. While the culprit was not found, Scotland Yard suspected the local Deputy Inspector of Eastbourne, Seekings, of having misplaced it to help Adams.[1]

By the time the trial started on March 18, 1957 at the Old Bailey the charge had been reduced to just Morrell, with Gertrude Hullett held back for a possible second separate trial. Three days later, a new Homicide Act came into effect; murder by poison became a non-capital offence. Adams would still face the death penalty if convicted. If, however, the Home Secretary decided to grant clemency, a conviction on the second Hullett charge would make it far more difficult politically to sentence Adams to life imprisonment.[2]

[edit] Adams and Eves

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

On 22 February 1957 the police were notified of a libellous and potentially prejudicial poem about the case titled Adams and Eves. It had been read at the Cavendish Hotel on the 13th by the manager in front of 150 guests. An officer spent ten days investigating and discovered a chain of hands through which the poem had passed and been recopied in order to be redistributed. The original author was not discovered however, though an unnamed Fleet Street journalist was suspected. The poem finished:

[...]
It’s the mortuary chapel
If they touch an Adam’s apple
After parting with a Bentley as a fee
So to liquidate your odd kin
By the needle of the bodkin
Send them down to sunny Eastbourne by the sea.

[edit] Edith Alice Morrell

One of Adams's patients was Edith Alice Morrell, a wealthy widow. She had suffered from a brain thrombosis (a stroke), was partially paralyzed and had severe arthritis. In July 1948 she had moved to Eastbourne, and came under Adams' supervision. He supplied her with doses of heroin and morphine to ease her symptoms of "cerebral irritation" and to help her sleep. During the trial it was established that in the 10 months before her death, Adams had given Morrell a total of 1,629½ grains of barbiturates; 1,928 grains of Sedormid; 16411⁄12 grains of morphia and 139½ grains of heroin. Between November 7–November 12, 1949 alone, she was given 40½ grains of morphia (2624mg) and 39 grains of heroin (2527mg), according to prescriptions. This would more than likely have been enough to kill her in itself despite any tolerance developed (the respective LD-50s are (in one dose) between 375-3750mg for morphine and 75-375mg for heroin based on a person of 75 kg [8]).

Morrell had made several wills. In some of them, Adams received large sums of money or furniture — in others, he was not mentioned. On August 24, 1949 she added a codicil saying that Adams would receive nothing. A year and three months later, on November 13, 1950, according to Adams, she died from a stroke, aged 81. On inspecting the body, Adams slit her wrist to ensure she was dead.[1] Despite Morrell's codicil, the doctor received a small amount from Morrell's £78,000 estate (though less than one of her nurses received and much less than her chauffeur), a Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost (valued at £1,500) and an antique chest containing silver cutlery worth £276, which Adams had often told her he admired. After Morrell's death, he took away an infra-red lamp she had bought herself, worth £60. It was later found at his surgery.

The day of her death, Adams arranged for Morrell to be cremated. On the cremation form he stated that "as far as I am aware" he had no pecuniary interest in the death of the deceased. This falsehood therefore avoided the necessity of a post-mortem. That same evening, Morrell's ashes were scattered over the English Channel. The police later estimated that Adams had visited Morrell a total of 321 times during her treatment. Adams billed her estate for 1,100 visits, costing ₤1,674.[1]

[edit] Gertrude Hullett

On July 23, 1956 Gertrude Hullett, another of Adams' patients, died aged 50. She had been depressed since the death of her husband four months earlier and had been prescribed large amounts of sodium barbitone and also sodium phenobarbitone. She had told Adams on frequent occasions of her wish to commit suicide.

Most likely on July 19, she took an overdose and was found the next morning in a coma. Adams was unavailable and a doctor named Harris attended to her until Adams arrived later in the day. Not once during their discussion did Adams mention her depression or her medication. They decided a cerebral hemorrhage was most likely, due partly to contracted pupils. This however is also a symptom of morphine or barbiturate poisoning. Moreover, her breathing was shallow, typical of an overdose-induced coma. A cerebral hemorrhage is usually accompanied by heavy breathing. Dr Shera, a pathologist, was called to take a spinal fluid sample on the 20th. He immediately asked if her stomach contents should be examined in case of narcotic poisoning. Adams and Harris both opposed this. The results of a urine sample taken showed Hullett had 115 grains of sodium barbitone in her body - twice the fatal dose. These results were only received after her death.

The coroner at Hullett's inquest definitely thought that poisoning should have been considered earlier. In fact, on the 22nd Adams admitted the possibility of barbiturate poisoning and gave Hullett a newly-developed antidote, 10cc of Megimide. The recommended dose in the instructions, as the inquest established, was 100 cc to 200 cc. Adams had even checked with a colleague at the Princess Alice Hospital in Eastbourne, who told police he had told Adams to give doses of 1 cc every five minutes. He had then given Adams 100 cc of Megimide. The coroner described Adams's treatment as "merely a gesture".

He also questioned why Adams only gave oxygen to the patient just hours before she died. The nurse had described Hullett as "cyanosed" (blue). Adams responded "There didn't seem to be any necessity". The coroner then asked why there had been no intravenous drip. Adams answered "She wasn't perspiring. She had lost no fluids." The nurse however described Hullett as "sweating a good deal" from the 20th till her death.

The inquest decided Hullett committed suicide. The jury were directed by the coroner not to find that Hullett died as a result of Adams's criminal negligence.

After the inquest but before the trial in 1957, the DPP's office compiled a table of patients treated with Megimide and Daptazole for barbiturate poisoning at St Mary's Hospital in Eastbourne between May 1955 and February 1957. 17 patients were listed, 15 had recovered and six of those had been in the first half of 1956, before Hullett's death. All but one had been put on a drip and several had taken a higher dose than Hullett. Most importantly however, Adams had worked at this hospital for one day a week since 1941 when he had qualified as an anaesthetist. It was presumed by the DPP, therefore, that he must have heard of these cases and their successful treatment. Why did an overdose not cross his mind, and why did he provide delayed and inaccurate treatment?

It is also worth noting that Adams called the pathologist to make an appointment for the post-mortem before Hullett died. The pathologist was shocked and accused Adams of "extreme incompetence".

Hullett left her 1954 Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn (worth at least £2,900) to Adams in a will dated July 14. Adams changed the car's registration on December 8 and then sold it on the 13th. He was arrested on the 20th. Furthermore, Adams had also received a cheque for £1,000 from Hullett on July 17, six days before her death. He took it to the bank the next day and was told it would clear by the 21st. He then asked for it to be 'specially cleared', to credit his account the next day. This was an unusual request since 'special clearance' was given in cases where a cheque might bounce and Hullett was one of the richest residents in Eastbourne. The cheque was lost during the investigation.

[edit] The trial

John Bodkin Adams celebrating his acquittal
John Bodkin Adams celebrating his acquittal

Adams was first tried for the murder of Mrs Morrell, with the Hullett charge to be prosecuted afterwards. The trial lasted 17 days, the longest murder trial in Britain up to that point. It was presided over by Lord Justice Patrick Devlin. Devlin summed up the tricky nature of the case thus: "It is a most curious situation, perhaps unique in these courts, that the act of murder has to be proved by expert evidence."[3] Defence counsel Sir Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence QC - a "specialist in real estate and divorce cases [and] a relative stranger in criminal court"[3] who was defending his first murder trial - convinced the jury that there was no evidence that a murder had been committed, much less that a murder had been committed by Adams. He emphasised that the indictment was based mainly on testimonies from the nurses who tended Mrs. Morrell — and that none of the witnesses' evidence matched the others'. Also, only one of the prosecution's two expert medical witnesses, Dr Arthur Douthwaite, was prepared to say that murder had definitely been committed, and Lawrence was able to demonstrate that he was not completely reliable. Defence witness Dr John Harman, however, was adamant that Adams' treatment, though unusual, was not reckless.

Adams did not appear in the witness box, a situation that shocked the prosecution and the press. The prosecution was not allowed to produce evidence from Gertrude Hullett's case — and therefore a nurse who had worked with Adams in caring for Hullett could not be called upon to repeat her words to Adams in July 1956: "You do realise, doctor, that you have killed her?"

When the jury retired to discuss the verdict, Lord Chief Justice Rayner Goddard phoned Devlin to urge him, in the case of Adams being found not guilty, to grant Adams bail before he was to be tried on a second count of murdering Gertrude Hullett. Devlin was taken aback at this since a person accused of murder had never been given bail before in British legal history.[2] Importantly, during the committal hearing prior to the trial, Goddard had been seen dining with Roland Gwynne at the White Hart hotel in Lewes.[1] Goddard, as Lord Chief Justice, had by then already appointed Devlin to try Adams' case.

On April 15, 1957, the jury returned after just 44 minutes to find Adams not guilty.

[edit] Concerns of prejudice in the trial

There is considerable evidence to suggest that the trial was interfered with by outside forces.[1]

  • The loss of the nurses' notebooks: These vital pieces of evidence, eight books of records made by nurses who had worked under Adams, were recorded in pre-trial police records but disappeared before the trial started, depriving Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, of the chance to familiarise himself with them. He was presented with only a copy of them by the defence on the second day of the trial. These books were then used by the fully prepared defence to counter evidence given against Adams by the nurses, who had originally written the notes. Six years after the event, the notes could be said to be more reliable than the nurses' own memories. The defence was not required to explain how the books came into their hands, and the Attorney-General made no effort to pursue this matter, despite his nickname of "Sir Bullying Manner". He also failed to ask for an adjournment to acquaint himself with the new evidence - despite the fact that the judge was sure to grant it.[2] Lord Devlin later said of him: "He could be downright rude but he did not shout or bluster. Yet his disagreeableness was so pervasive, his persistence so interminable, the obstructions he manned so far flung, his objectives apparently so insignificant, that sooner or later you would be tempted to ask yourself whether the game was worth the candle: if you asked yourself that, you were finished."[2]
  • Adams himself gave three conflicting explanations for how the defence came to have the note books: they were given to him by Mrs Morrell's son when he found them among her effects and filed away at his surgery; they were delivered anonymously to his door after she died; they were found in the air raid shelter at the back of his garden. His solicitor, meanwhile, claimed later that they were found by the defence team in Adams's surgery shortly before trial. All versions however differ from the police records: in the list of exhibits for the Committal Hearing given to the DPP's office, the notes are clearly mentioned. The Attorney General therefore must have known they existed.[1]
  • Disclosure of evidence to the BMA: On 8 November 1956, the Attorney-General handed a copy of Hannam's 187-page report to the President of the British Medical Association, effectively the doctors' trade union in Britain. This document - the prosecution's most valuable document - was in the hands of the defence, a situation that led the Home Secretary, Gwilym Lloyd-George, to reprimand Manningham-Buller, stating that such documents should not even be shown to "Parliament or to individual Members". "I can only hope that no harm will result" since "the disclosure of this document is likely to cause me considerable embarrassment".[1]
  • Use of the Nolle prosequi: after the not guilty verdict on the count of murdering Mrs Morrell, the Attorney-General had the power to prosecute Adams for the death of Mrs Hullett. However, he chose to offer no evidence by entering a nolle prosequi — historically a power only used on compassionate grounds when the accused is too ill to be tried. This was not the case with Adams. Devlin in his post-trial book even went as far as terming this "an abuse of power".[1]
  • Wrong case chosen: Charles Hewett, Hannam's assistant, described how both officers were astounded at Manningham-Buller's decision to charge Adams with the murder of Mrs Morrell, since her body had been cremated and therefore there was no evidence to present before a jury.[9] He believed that there were other cases against the doctor, where traces of drugs had been found in exhumed remains, which were more compelling as proof.[9] He also considered that a charge of manslaughter would have been more appropriate in the circumstances. He questioned the decision not to proceed further after Adams' acquittal and he believed that a calculating killer escaped justice as a result.[9]

[edit] Reasons for interference

  • NHS situation: The case was "very important for the medical profession."[2] The NHS had been founded in 1948 but by 1956 was stretched financially to breaking point and doctors were disaffected. Indeed, a Royal Commission on doctors' pay was set up in February 1957. A doctor sentenced to death would be the final straw and would turn doctors away from working for it if they could be hanged for simply prescribing medication. Moreover, it would have ruined public confidence in the service and in the government of the time as well.[1] The situation was such that when Harold Macmillan became Prime Minister on 10 January 1957, he told Queen Elizabeth he could not guarantee his government would last "six weeks".[10]
  • Harold Macmillan link: On November 26, 1950, the 10th Duke of Devonshire had a heart attack. Adams tended him and was by his side when he died, 13 days after the death of Mrs Morrell.[1] The coroner should have been notified since the Duke had not seen a doctor in the 14 days before his death, however, due to a loophole in the law, Adams, though present at death, could sign the death certificate to state that the Duke died naturally. Bizarrely, the Duke's sister was married to Harold Macmillan. Macmillan, who became Prime Minister in 1957 during preparation for the trial, had good reason not to have wanted this case to be investigated further: his wife had been having an affair with Robert Boothby, Conservative MP for East Aberdeenshire, since 1930. An acquittal for Adams would assure that bygones were left bygones.[1] It should also be noted that the Attorney-General, Manningham-Buller, attended Cabinet meetings on a regular basis.

[edit] Police archives

Scotland Yard's files on the case and also those of the DPP, were closed until 2033. This was an unusual decision considering the advanced age of the suspect, witnesses and others involved in the case. It has led to speculation that the authorities at the time had an ulterior motive.[1] The files were only opened to the public after special permission was granted in 2003.[1]

[edit] Suspicious cases

It is worth quoting some of the evidence from testimonies gathered by Hannam during the investigation, but which was never aired in court. Taken together, they suggest a certain modus operandi:[1]

  • August 1939 - Adams was treating Agnes Pike. Her solicitors however were concerned at the amount of hypnotic drugs he was giving her and asked another doctor, Dr. Mathew, to take over treatment. Dr Mathew examined her in Adams's presence but could find no disease present. Moreover, the patient was "deeply under the influence of drugs", incoherent and gave her age as 200 years. Later during the examination Adams stepped forward unexpectedly and gave Mrs. Pike an injection of morphia. Asked why he did this, Adams replied "because she might be violent". Dr. Mathew discovered that Adams had banned all relatives from seeing her. Dr. Mathew withdrew Adams's medication and after eight weeks of his care, Mrs Pike was able to do her own shopping and had regained her full faculties.
  • 24 December 1946 - Emily Louise Mortimer died aged 75. Afterwards, Adams took a bottle of brandy and a clock from her room. He claimed to the police that the clock had been loaned by him and that it wasn't 'right to leave spirits in a nursing home'. Adams received the residue from Mortimer's will and by 1957 had earned ₤1,950 in dividends from the shares he inherited.
  • 23 February 1950 - Amy Ware died aged 76. Adams had banned her from seeing relatives prior to her death. She left Adams £1000 of her total estate of £8,993, yet Adams stated on the cremation form that he was not a beneficiary of the will. He was charged and convicted for this in 1957.
  • 28 December 1950 - Annabelle Kilgour died aged 89. She had been attended by Adams since July when she had had a stroke. She went into a coma on 23 December, immediately after Adams started giving her sedatives. The nurse involved later told the police she was 'quite certain Adams either gave the wrong injection or of far too concentrated a type". Mrs. Kilgour left Adams £200 and a clock.
  • 3 January 1952 - Adams purchased 5,000 phenobarbitone tablets. By the time his house was searched four years later, none were left.
  • 11 May 1952 - Julia Bradnum died aged 85. The previous year Adams asked her if her will was in order and offered to accompany her to the bank to check it. On examining it, he pointed out that she hadn't given her beneficiaries "addresses" and that it should be rewritten. She had wanted to leave her house to her adopted daughter but Adams suggested it would be best to sell the house and then give money to whomever she wanted. This she did. Adams eventually received £661. While Adams attended this patient, he was often seen holding her hand and chatting to her on one knee.
    • The day before Bradnum died, she had been doing housework and going for walks. The next morning she woke up feeling unwell. Adams was called and saw her. He gave her an injection and stated "It will be over in three minutes". It was. Adams then confirmed "I'm afraid she's gone" and left the room.
    • Bradnum was exhumed on 21 December 1956. Adams had said on the death certificate that Bradnum died of a cerebral haemorrhage. Francis Camps however examined her brain and excluded this possibility. The rest of the body however was not in a state to deduce the real cause of death. Furthermore it was noticed that Adams, the executor, had put a plate on Bradnum's coffin stating she died on 27 May 1952. This was the date her body was in fact interred.
  • 22 November 1952 - Julia Thomas, 72, was being treated by Adams (she called him "Bobbums") for depression after her cat died in early November. On the 19th, Adams gave sedatives so she would feel "better for it in the morning". The next day, after more tablets, she went into a coma. On the 21st he told Thomas' cook; "Mrs. Thomas has promised me her typewriter, I'll take it now". She died at 3 a.m. the next morning.
  • 15 January 1953 - Hilda Neil Miller, 86, died in a guest house where she lived with her sister Clara. They had not been receiving their post for many months previously and were cut off from their relatives. When Hilda's long-standing friend Dolly Wallis asked Adams about her health, he answered her with medical terms she "did not understand". While visiting Hilda, Adams was seen by her nurse, Phyllis Owen, to pick up articles in the room, examine them and slip them in his pocket. Adams arranged Hilda's funeral and burial site himself.
  • 22 February 1954 - Clara Neil Miller, died aged 87. Adams often locked the door when he saw her - for up to twenty minutes at a time. When Dolly Wallis asked about this, Clara said he was assisting her in "personal matters": pinning on brooches, adjusting her dress. His fat hands were "comforting" to her. She also appeared to be under the influence of drugs.
    • Early that February, the coldest for many years, Adams had sat with her in her room for forty minutes. A nurse entered, unnoticed, and saw Clara's "bed clothes all off... and over the foot rail of the bed, her night gown up around her chest and the window in the room open top and bottom", while Adams read to her from the Bible. When later confronted by Hannam regarding this, Adams said "The person who told you that doesn't know why I did it".
    • Clara left Adams £1,275 and he charged her estate a further £700 after her death. He was the sole executor. Her funeral was arranged by Adams and only he and Mrs Annie Sharpe, the guest house owner, were present. She received £200 in Clara's will. Adams tipped the vicar a guinea after the ceremony. Clara was also exhumed during the police investigation on 21 December 1956. Francis Camps concluded that she had had bronchopneumonia possibly brought about by high drug doses - not a heart problem as Adams had said on the death certificate. According to prescription records, Adams had not prescribed anything to treat the bronchopneumonia.
  • 30 May 1955 - James Downs, brother-in-law of Amy Ware, died aged 88. He had entered a nursing home with a broken ankle four months earlier. Adams had treated him with a sedative containing morphia, which made him forgetful. On 7 April Adams gave his nurse, Sister Miller, a tablet to make him more alert. Two hours later, a solicitor arrived for him to amend his will. Adams told the solicitor he was to be made a legatee to inherit £1000. The solicitor amended the will and returned two hours later with another doctor, Dr. Barkworth, who declared the patient to be alert. Dr. Barkworth was paid 3 guineas for his time. Nurse Miller later told police she had heard Adams earlier that April tell the "senile" Downs; "Now look Jimmy, you promised me... you would look after me and I see you haven't even mentioned me in your will." "I have never charged you a fee". Downs died after a 36 hour coma, 12 hours after Adams's last visit. Adams charged his estate £216 for his services and signed Downs' cremation form, stating he had "no pecuniary interest in the death of the deceased".
  • 14 March 1956 - Alfred John Hullett died, aged 71. He was the husband of Gertrude Hullett. Shortly after his death, Adams went to a chemists to get a 10 cc hypodermic morphine solution in the name of Mr. Hullett containing 5 grains of morphine, and for the prescription to be back dated to the previous day. The police presumed this was to cover morphine Adams had given him from his own private supplies. Mr. Hullett left Adams £500 in his will.
  • 15 November 1956 - Annie Sharpe, owner of the guest house where the Neil Millers died - and therefore major witness - died of "carcinomatosis of the peritoneal cavity" during the police investigation. Adams had diagnosed cancer five days earlier and made a prescription for her for hyperduric morphine and 36 pethidine tablets. Hannam had had a chance to interview her, but would never be able to have her questioned in court. She was cremated.

[edit] After the acquittal

In the aftermath of the trial Adams resigned from the National Health Service and was convicted later that year on 8 counts of forging prescriptions, four counts of making false statements on cremation forms, and three offences under the Dangerous Drugs Act, 1951 and fined £2,400 plus costs. On November 22, 1957 he was struck off the Medical Register.

Right after the trial, Percy Hoskins, chief crime reporter for the Daily Express, whisked Adams off to a safehouse where he spent the next 2 weeks recounting his life story. Hoskins had befriended Adams during the trial and was the only major journalist to doubt his guilt. Adams was paid ₤10,000 for the interview though he never spent the proceeds - the notes were found in a bank vault after his death, untouched. Adams then successfully sued several newspapers for libel. He returned to Eastbourne, where he continued to practice privately despite the common belief in the town that he had murdered people. This belief was not shared by his friends and patients in general, however. One exception was Roland Gwynne, who distanced himself considerably from Adams after the trial.[1]

Adams was reinstated as a general practitioner in 1961, after two failed applications. That he was allowed to resume his medical career suggests his professional colleagues thought him neither guilty of murder, nor grossly negligent or incompetent in his work. When he applied for a visa to America in August 1962, however, he was refused because of his dangerous drug convictions.[1]

Adams later became President (and Honorary Medical Officer) of the British Clay Pigeon Shooting Association.[11]

Roland Gwynne died on November 15, 1971. Adams signed his death certificate.

In 1985, Sir Patrick Devlin, the judge, wrote a book about the case. He concluded that Adams may have been a "mercenary mercy killer" but, though compassionate, he was at the same time greedy and "prepared to sell death".[11] It should be noted, however, that Devlin only had access to information relating to the charge put before him (Morrell). Pamela Cullen however, the first historian to have access to the police archives, believes that Adams was without doubt a serial killer.[1]

[edit] Death

Adams slipped and fractured his hip on June 30, 1983 while shooting in Battle, East Sussex. He was taken to Eastbourne hospital but developed a chest infection and died on July 4 of left ventricular failure. He left an estate of £402,970 and bequeathed £1000 to Percy Hoskins. Hoskins gave the money to charity. Adams had been receiving legacies until the end.

[edit] Legal legacy

Adams' trial had two profound effects on the British legal system.

  • The first was the legal principle of double effect that if a doctor "gave treatment to a seriously ill patient with the aim of relieving pain or distress, as a result of which that person's life was inadvertently shortened, the doctor was not guilty of murder."[12][13]
  • Secondly, due to the potentially prejudicial evidence that was mentioned in the committal hearing (regarding Hullett - evidence that would then not be used in Adams' first trial for murdering Morrell) the Tucker Committee was held, which led to the law being changed in the subsequent Criminal Justice Act, 1967 to give a defendant the right to ask for a committal hearing to be heard in private to avoid pretrial publicity.[1]

[edit] Subsequent cases

It was 25 years before another doctor in Britain, Dr Leonard Arthur, stood trial for murder arising from treatment. Arthur was tried in November 1981 at Leicester Crown Court for the attempted murder of John Pearson, a newborn child with Downs Syndrome. He was acquitted.[14]

In 2000, Harold Shipman became the only British doctor to be successfully prosecuted for the murder of his patients.[15] He was found guilty on 15 counts and the Shipman Inquiry concluded in 2002 that he had killed a further 200.

[edit] Popular culture

In 1986, The Good Doctor Bodkin Adams, a TV docudrama based on his trial, was produced starring Timothy West.

[edit] References

[edit] Cited references

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Cullen, Pamela V., A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams, London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9
  2. ^ a b c d e f Devlin, Patrick. Easing the passing: The trial of Doctor John Bodkin Adams, London, The Bodley Head, 1985
  3. ^ a b c Not Guilty, Time, April 22, 1957.
  4. ^ Law and Literature, ed. Brook Thomas, Page 149 - quoting Rupert Furneaux
  5. ^ Guilty on 14 Charges - TIME
  6. ^ Kelly’s Directory of Eastbourne (1929), Kelly’s Directories Ltd 
  7. ^ John Surtees, The Strange Case of Dr. Bodkin Adams: The Life and Murder Trial of Eastbourne's Infamous Doctor and the Views of Those Who Knew Him, 2000
  8. ^ Toxic Substances in water
  9. ^ a b c Hallworth, Rodney and Mark Williams. Where there's a will... The sensational life of Dr John Bodkin Adams, 1983, Capstan Press, Jersey ISBN 0946797005
  10. ^ Macmillan, Harold. The Macmillan Diaries, The Cabinet Years, 1950-1957, ed. Peter Catterall (London, Macmillan, 2003)
  11. ^ a b Profile of Adams at shycyberchamber.com
  12. ^ Surtees, 2000
  13. ^ Treat Me Right: Essays in Medical Law and Ethics
  14. ^ Killing the Willing ... And Others! Legal Aspects of Euthanasia and Related Topics
  15. ^ The Case of Dr John Bodkin Adams

[edit] General references

  • Bedford, Sybille. The Best We Can Do.
  • Cavendish, Marshall. Murder Casebook 40 Eastbourne's Doctor Death, 1990.
  • Cullen, Pamela V. A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams, London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9
  • Devlin, Patrick. Easing the passing: The trial of Doctor John Bodkin Adams, London, The Bodley Head, 1985.
  • Gaute, J.H.H. and Robin Odell, The New Murderer's Who's Who, Harrap Books, London, 1996.
  • Hoskins, Percy. Two men were acquitted: The trial and acquittal of Doctor John Bodkin Adams
  • Hallworth, Rodney and Mark Williams, Where there's a will... The sensational life of Dr John Bodkin Adams, Capstan Press, Jersey, 1983. ISBN 0946797005
  • Surtees, John. The Strange Case of Dr. Bodkin Adams: The Life and Murder Trial of Eastbourne's Infamous Doctor and the Views of Those Who Knew Him, 2000.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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